ERIE — A forensics lab confirmed through DNA analysis that a human skull found south of Erie in 2023 belonged to Jay Shumate, Neosho County Sheriff Greg Taylor said Tuesday.
Shumate, 60, was reported missing on Jan. 17, 2016, after leaving his elderly mother in a parked pickup truck outside Rickey’s Rexall Drug in Erie. She told officers at the time that her son had gone to a sports thing on foot and never returned. She was taken home by police. Jay Shumate was last seen around 10 a.m. that day.
Erie police asked the sheriff’s office to assist in the search five days later. Shumate reportedly walked frequently along U.S. 59 or Main Street south to the Neosho River, law enforcement learned.
On Jan. 22, 2016, a large search consisting of community volunteers, law enforcement and volunteer fireman searched the surrounding snow-covered sections of land with an emphasis on searching between Erie and the Neosho River.
Searchers used horseback, ATVs and aircraft to conduct the search along with those on foot.
The search was unsuccessful. At the time there were a couple of possible sightings of Shumate, one claiming to have seen someone similar hitchhiking on U.S. 69 near Pittsburg. The Erie Police Department investigation into Shumate’s disappearance was unsuccessful.
Since that time the Neosho River has flooded a number of times.
Taylor reported on social media that in February 2023, people looking for deer antler sheds found the human skull in a flood-prone area near the river. The people found the skull on Feb. 12, 2023, and reported the find the next day.
Investigators collected the skull and searched where it had been found for any other remains or clothing. This search yielded nothing, Taylor said.
The Washburn University Forensic Anthropology Lab analyzed the skull, determining it likely belonged to a male. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation assisted in the case, and DNA samples from Shumate’s family were then submitted to PTC Laboratories in Texas for comparison. On Aug. 25, the results confirmed the skull belonged to Shumate.
The cause of death remains unknown, Taylor said. He said the skull showed no obvious signs of trauma.
Taylor said Tuesday that the area where the skull was found was in an open meadow south of Erie near the river. The area is regularly mowed, so it’s unlikely that Shumate died where the skull was found. The river backs up onto this property during flooding, which can unearth things.
He didn’t know how the skull got to that meadow unless an animal moved it there from another location.
